And the One shall become Two

I'll apologize now: I'm Sorry.

Since no anti-blog proliferation treaty has been signed yet, I'm taking this opportunity to create another blog. The one you're reading now, which is mikedekker.blogspot.com, will be my own personal blog, where I can rant and rave about sports, movies, beer, math, or whatever.

Meanwhile, all the happenings of Mike, Lisa, Annika, Abby and Jake will be moving to a different blog, which is located here:

handfulofdekkers.blogspot.com

So, if you just want to hear about what's going on in our family, you can stick with that one. The two blogs will always be linked to each other, so they'll be easy to find, but you'll have to adjust bookmarks and such a little bit, if that's something you do. Sorry.

Anyhow, you can venture over there now if you like, as the first family update will be appearing shortly. Cheers!

The Roundup

Another "livin' in the country" event. In the picture below, you can barely see our neighbor's calf, Ground Round. He doesn't belong in the marshy area in front of our house, but he managed to escape his electrified enclosure. Lisa spotted him on our street and called our neighbor Molly, and eventually her father-in-law and I joined her in chasing him around. We actually got a leash and collar on him twice but it came off both times. Lisa, carrying Jake, took pictures. Finally, we managed to surround him and guide him through an opening in the fence and back to his proper home. It was my first cattle roundup. Quite the excitement.

Last weekend we had Lizzy's wedding, in which Annika and Abby were the flower girls. It was one of the nicer and most fun weddings we've been too. The girls loved all of it, especially the dancing at the reception. While they both started to melt down around 9:30pm, they both got a second wind. Eventually, around 10:30, Annika was still out dancing to the deafening sounds of Bon Jovi and Outkast, while Abby had completely crashed on Grandma Dekker's lap and slept through the same music.

Various things...

Lisa, Jake and I attended the 150th anniversary celebration of the CRC at Van Andel Arena (with overflow at Devos Place) today. I'm guessing that it might be the largest CRC gathering ever. We had communion with 12,000 people. The service featured little foil-sealed cups of grape juice, a full orchestra conducted by John Varineau, a huge choir, video cameras on cranes, and a sleeping 11-week old, who can claim he attended the 150th service when he goes to the 200th anniversary service someday. Speaking of, Lisa did well in getting this picture...

Other things:

Annika has a fluffy stuffed dog that she named Mimi. Mimi is also a WebKinz, which is an online version of the stuffed animal that you can play with, buy things for, etc. The online version of Mimi has three status bars, for happiness, health, and hunger. The other day Annika was playing online while Abby was watching, and we called down to the basement from upstairs with a question for the girls. Abby ran to the bottom of the stairs, and with all the earnestness and concern in the world blurted out "Mimi is sick on the 'puter!!!" It was hilarious to hear, and sure enough, Mimi's health was down to 76 out of 100, and she had to visit Dr. Quack to get healed.

Annika and Abby were hitting balls in the yard the other day, when I decided to try and get them taking turns hitting and running the bases. Annika hit first, got a double, and then Abby hit off the tee, so Annika ran from second after Abby's hit, and so on, like a real game. Abby doesn't quite get it all yet, and the next time she was up she ran straight from home to second base, and this was very upsetting to Annika. While I tried to calm Annika down before her turn, Abby continued to run, from second to third, across the diamond to first, and then back to third, which didn't help Annika at all. We gave up on Abby. However, on Annika's next hit, a blast to center field, Annika went around second at full steam and plowed straight into Abby, who was running full tilt in her randomly chosen direction. Basically, Abby got creamed, but both girls went down and were upset. It was pretty much slow-motion to me right before the collision. Abby was crying, and then Annika started too, and when I asked her if she was hurt anywhere, Annika moaned "No, I'm just sad for Abby." We went inside and had some green Kool-Aid.

Finally, and I almost dare not point it out, but the Yankees are 9.5 games out of 1st place, and 5.5 games behind the Tigers for the wildcard spot in the AL. Could we have the playoffs without the Yankees? Dare the baseball gods tease me with the possibility? Of course, we have 100 games to play and the Yankees have currently won six straight and made up some ground on the Red Sox, but let's keep our fingers crossed, OK?

Memorial Day

A very nice Memorial Day - the men (Dad, Greg, me) painted the railing on our front porch, which badly needed it. Meanwhile, the women (Mom, Katelyn, Lisa) bathed, fed, and practiced wedding hair on the children. Later, Annika asked nicely and was allowed to use the digital camera. That led to the following collage of Abby, which I discovered on the computer later that night. Enjoy!

Baptism

Last Sunday Jake was baptized. Many friends and family joined us at church, and the baptism was highlighted by Annika singing "Jacob, Jacob, God Claims You" in front of the whole congregation. She did a great job, we all beamed with pride, and she caused more than a few tears to flow in the congregation. Greg kindly took a digital video of Annika singing and I hoped to put it on YouTube for all of you that are far away to see, but the video is sideways and huge in file size, and I don't have any video-editing software. Lisa's grandpa also took very nice analog video of the entire baptism, and we're glad to have that.

Afterwards, we had 33 people at our house for a party. I spent most of my time on the deck, where I grilled more meat that I ever have before - a dozen hot dogs, 16 hamburgers, and 18 brats. Dessert was a great cake from the DeBoer bakery, which we finally finished three days later. Just for fun, here's a couple pictures...

First, Greg displays the quality ale available at the gathering - Bell's Big Porch Ale, an amber ale brewed for the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island

Second, Mike grills the flesh of many animals:

Meanwhile, Lisa has strep throat (yahoo!). Tee ball is done. Our thermometer read 92 degrees today, although the humidity isn't too bad. Jake is two months old. In a couple weeks, school will be done and it will really be summer. Our neighbors, whose house had a fire last fall (I think it was), had a fire in the dumpster that's in their driveway from the repairs.

An anecdote: Abby comes out of her room, a pacifier in each hand. Mike encounters her in the hallway. She hides them behind her back. "What do you have there?" says Mike. "Little People," Abby outrightly lies. She'll be 3 in July!

Country Living

Life continues, out in the country:

Our old strawberry patch is coming along, even though we haven't done a thing for it this year. We're not planting a garden since we're hoping to move. The riding mower is frequently in use (although I had to jump start it with my car when I first got it out this year - I didn't even know that could be done). Between mows, the dandelions are blooming like mad, much to the delight of the girls (by the way, there's nothing cuter than a 2-year-old Abby in a ponytail running barefoot through the yard). I could make the huge list of birds that are around, but I'll spare you (the hummingbirds showed up, too (sorry about all the parenthetical comments (here's another!))).

Our super-gardening neighbors have added livestock to their life, too, with three goats and a baby cow. The goats are named Pam, Nicole and Rebecca, while the cow's name is Ground Round (guess what he's for!). However, with the livestock also comes a fully armed and operational electrified fence. Fortunately there's a buffer consisting of their garden and the road between our property and the fence, so the girls won't accidentally run into it - apparently it's a very unpleasant experience. Meanwhile, the dirty starlings built a nest under the cap of our propane tank, which I eventually had to clean out. They had laid eggs, and I broke one getting them out, but then the girls and neighbor Leo made off with them. Annika eventually dropped two of them and Abby simply squeezed hers too hard, but Leo still had his 30 minutes later. A different day we found and chased a two-foot snake along the edge of the house, and later Abby and I found one on the road while taking a walk with Jake.

Phew! We'll miss all this if and when we move, but we won't miss being so far away from everything.

In non-country related news, we've been watching a lot more TV lately, since we're always trying to pass the time dealing with Jake before bed. It makes me pine for better cable, in order to get more sports, since you can watch that even with blaring static on, if that's what's necessary to calm Jake down. Besides that, I've seen more American Idol and Dancing with the Stars than ever before. Personally, I think DwtS is more entertaining, and Annika loves it. That said, here's a preview of coming attractions...
Annika's dance recital is June 2.

Six weeks down

Quickly, stuff that has happened:

Annika and I started tee-ball. My semester ended. I went to a math conference, heard some good speakers, and hob-nobbed. Meanwhile, Lisa bravely took the girls and Jake to Chicago for Lizzy's shower. Today Lisa went back to work and I had my first day alone with Abby and Jake. Jake is sleeping some longer chunks, but not anything we'd call "through the night" yet. When taking a calm, broad look at everything, we're mostly doing well. Catch me at the right moment, though, and I may eat you.

Pictures:

First oriole of the year!
Annika took the following two pictures. The first one highlights Jake's awesome complexion.

Truly, Abby does not always look like a ragamuffin. She actually cleans up quite nicely. Thanks for looking! Baptism is May 20, and you're all welcome to join us!